Lead Isotopes as a Tool for Identifying Human Mobility in Central Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Lead isotopes have successfully been used in archaeology to trace artifact provenance and, more recently, to study human paleomobility through skeletal remains in regions with traditionally temperate climates, such as Europe. However, very few environmental lead isotope baseline studies have been conducted for the Americas, where anthropogenic lead contamination in the environment tends to be high, and even fewer studies have tested the feasibility of analyzing lead isotopes in human enamel in this region, where skeletal preservation tends to be poor. The study presented here investigates the use of lead isotopes for paleomobility research at the site of Teotihuacan in central Mexico (AD 1–550). Preliminary results are provided for lead isotope baseline development in the Basin of Mexico using rock and soil samples. The labile fractions of the soils were extracted and analyzed to determine if modern-day lead contamination in the environment affects the natural lead isotopic signatures of these soils. The initial results of lead isotope analyses in human enamel will also be presented.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39259.0